Kale Lasagna

My parents were here for dinner last night. It isn't very frequently that they come over to visit or that we go to visit them. I'm not really sure why we don't try to visit them more often, they're only about 5 hours away. Life just gets busy & gets in the way, I guess! They have running and race schedules to work around, and we have mini farming and running.

Before they got here we took care of a couple things in the yard. The usual watering and stuff, but we also picked a whole pile of kale! Have you ever seen a pile of kale so high that it reaches someone's knees?

Well, I washed and took the center stalks out and sliced kale for about an hour. That's how much kale we harvested. There's still kale in the yard to pick too!  

Lasagna is one of our absolute favorites. We do lasagna with noodles, without noodles, with cheese, no cheese, meat every once in a while, every which way! For the lasagna we made last night we used a jar of tomato sauce we canned last summer, oven ready lasagna sheets, ricotta, mozzarella, kale & rosemary from the garden, and a little bit of garlic. We go garlic crazy so feel free to use less garlic in your own version. 

Ingredients:

2 boxes of oven ready lasagna sheets

tomato sauce

ricotta

mozzarella

kale

rosemary

garlic

Preheat the oven to 350F. Crack open the tomato sauce and ricotta, and get a good sized pile of kale. The kale that we used had been de-stemmed and ribbon sliced. Alternate layers of lasagna noodles, ricotta, and kale in a 9x13 baking dish. We go light on the ricotta and heavy on the kale; make it the way you like it and will enjoy it best! Once your dish is full of your layered goodness, pour tomato sauce over the top. We eyeball it, but I think it's about a quart of tomato sauce. Sprinkle minced garlic and rosemary over the top. Cover the dish with foil (or a cookie sheet if you're in a pinch & out of foil) and bake for about 30 minutes. Uncover the dish, sprinkle on some mozzarella, and bake for another 5-15 minutes. Cooking time depends on how many layers, how much liquid, and how crispy you want the lasagna. 

Next time I promise I'll have pictures of the whole process! I didn't even think about it while we were cooking last night. And there aren't any pictures of the lasagna to share now - it's all gone!

Running Review 5/27/16

It's only been 5 days since I posted my episode 10 video podcast, but I'm thinking that putting a running week in review post in would be a lot of fun (and maybe even interesting to some of you)! Friday's are supposed to be my "off" days. The only day of the week that I don't have something planned. I will shuffle my schedule around a little bit based on how I'm feeling (you'll see what I mean in a minute) but I figure that Friday is a good day to post a review because it's a break day & will allow me to review my progress, where I need to work harder, etc.

Sunday 5/22: 4 miles with Molly, 1 mile with Bella. 4 miles with Molly was running, while the 1 mile with Bella was walking. Poor Bella can't run much anymore. She's getting old enough that I don't think her joints appreciate it anymore. She will start limping a little after a mile or so of running so she gets to walk with me instead. My 4 miles with Molly went really well; she got to run without the Halti for a mile or so before she saw a cat! My best pace was 7:03 min/mi, while my average was 10:45 min/mi.

Monday 5/23: 3 miles with Molly at 6am. We did the "gas station" loop - I run to a particular gas station, walk for a quarter of a mile to a different street, & then continue running through neighborhoods & by a couple schools, back to my house. We set off a few barking dogs in yards... It always makes me feel bad when that happens so early in the morning. My best pace was 8:46 min/mi, while my average was 10:50 min/mi.

Tuesday 5/24: Cross training day. As usual, for this day I went up to the gym after work & danced with the Bodyjam class at the Gold's Gym. I love the Bodyjam class! It's such a fun break from running & doesn't feel like work at all.

Wednesday 5/25 & Thursday 5/26: I didn't feel like running. I want to make sure I don't jump into running again too quickly after taking those couple weeks off to let my knee heal. My shin on my right leg was hurting on the 25th, while I just didn't feel like going out on the 26th.

Friday 5/27: 3.1 miles with Molly. I did the bypass trail loop. There's a lovely tree sided trail behind a wall right along the highway. The shade from the trees help keep it from feeling too hot, even when the sun is out & it's 65 degrees out. My perfect running temperature is about 55. Unfortunately that doesn't happen here too frequently... at least, it hasn't been happening this year! We skipped spring & went straight into summer. Anyways, Molly got to run without the nose thing for maybe a quarter of a mile? She was way too distracted & tried to pull me over to visit with a concrete lion statue... My best pace was 7:51 min/mi, while my average was 11:09 min/mi. It was definitely a slow day. I did more walking for the warm up and cool down than I typically do, which affected my overall pace.

I turn my watch on to track things when I get out the door & turn it off when I get back to my door. I know, it doesn't make everything very accurate, but it's good enough for me!

Now, I know this isn't really me running but I learned the basics of round penning a horse! Mary, Ty's Mom, has Dream boarded not too far from where we live. We go visit him & help take care of him. This weekend she'll be out of town so we will be doing some extra work around the barn & making sure that he gets some exercise in. I haven't spent much time with horses, aside from a couple horse camps while I was growing up. It's all new to me!

It was a lot of fun learning how to make him walk, trot, & canter around me with nothing more than my body language and a word or two. I also learned how to get him to change direction. He was a great sport at letting me practice & get things wrong too!

He got rewarded with plenty of licorice & time in the grass.

Wordless Wednesday

Bok Choy Monday

World War Two. Atomic bombs. Hanford Nuclear site. Alphabet houses.

In 1943 there was a government project to build housing for all the military personnel & scientists who were working at the Hanford Nuclear site. There are quite a few different models of houses that were designed & built for the workers & their families. All of the designs were given letters of the alphabet as names. These old homes are now commonly referred to as ABC houses or Alphabet houses. I live in one of these old houses, the V house model, though it had some remodeling done at some point. 

Now, our whole front yard and our whole back yard has been converted into what we call Shilo Farms Urban Redux. Ty, my partner, grew up on a farm. He dreams of farming on acreage again someday but for now he's doing the urban farming thing. We grow tomatoes, sweet & hot peppers, melons, watermelons, summer squash, winter squash, various herbs, eggplants, lettuces, collard greens, kale, chard, mint, chamomile, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, beans... I think the list can probably go on for days! Pretty much everything we grow are heirloom varieties. They are all grown as organically as we can get - meaning no chemical pesticide sprays or fertilizers, but we do use natural pesticides (basil & marigolds actually work really well) & use mulch & manure, tilling those in every year. 

Last weekend I harvested all of our bok choy. It has gotten so hot that it's bolting & going to seed. Bok choy actually makes some really pretty little yellow flowers, but I'd rather eat what I grew than look at the pretty little flowers. 

I had a lot of bok choy to use! I decided on two recipes that wouldn't require a trip to the grocery store - coleslaw and fried rice. Not typically things you would pick to use bok choy, I think, but bound to be tasty! Bok choy has nice crisp stalks with smooth & sweet leaves. Those textures make bok choy amazing in salads as well as cooked dishes. The two recipes I used make very different styles & textures out of the bok choy but they could actually be eaten together in a meal, I think!

I used this recipe for the coleslaw, and this one for the fried rice. With, of course, a few variations to the fried rice based on what I had in the kitchen! Like, 3 eggs instead of 2, no tofu, frozen veggie mix, & extra garlic, garnished with sriracha. 

I do still have some bok choy left after making these two dishes, so Ty's mom will be getting a bag of it tomorrow!

Desert Knits Episode 10: I almost have a real computer!

Yes, still just almost. I was hoping that I would be able to at least post from my own computer, but it looks like I won't actually be able to use my computer until Wednesday, at the earliest. The cord that goes from the monitor to the computer needs some kind of adapter. Don't ask me what kind exactly, but it's on order from Amazon!

In the meantime, welcome to my new blog! I've decided that the podcast needs another space - one where you can find episodes easier & find pictures of knitting, spinning, and weaving, with a little bit of recipes & garden & running mixed in. I was counting how many episodes I've done just a few minutes ago & would you believe that this is my 10th podcast video?! And this is the first time that I'm posting on a blog in an actual place specifically for the podcast!

Show notes:

Please, please, please excuse the text falling off the edge! I'm hoping that this is the last video I'll be editing on th iPad...

Finished object
- Danse Macabre

WIPs
- Mince Pie Mayhem in Seven Sisters Arts Meridian, colorway Cripple Creek
- Test knit for Amanita in Rain City Knits Nylon Sock, colorway Navy Blue
- Jenkins SAL NBK The Telltale Heart

Stash
- The Happy Little Dye Pot 50/50 merino/silk, colorway Woodlands
- Handmaiden Lace Silk, colorway Dandelion
- Inglenook"As You Wish" Princess Bride inspired sicklebatts & braids

Warrior Camp prize donation
- The Happy Little Dye Pot 75/20/5 merino/nylon/stellina, colorway Riddle 2

Running
- I'm slowly testing distance & speed, getting back on track with the training schedule. I think my knee is better & I'll be back on schedule starting tomorrow!